Hap and Leonard

Joe R. Lansdale

For Ebook Edition see THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD

Joe R. Lansdale’s popular Texan crime-fighting duo is immortalized in this hard-nosed collection of short stories and tall tales, featured in the SundanceTV series starring Michael K. Williams (The Wire), James Purefoy (The Following), and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men).

Hap and Leonard

by Joe R. Lansdale

Check out the SundanceTV Hap and Leonard series starring Michael K. Williams (The Wire), James Purefoy (The Following), and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men).

Hap and Leonard have never fit the profile. Hap Collins looks like a good ’ol boy, but his liberal politics don’t match. After a number of failed careers, Hap has found his calling: kicking ass.

Vietnam veteran Leonard Pine is even more complicated: black, conservative, gay…and an occasional arsonist. With Leonard on the job with his childhood friend Hap, both small-time crooks and the masterminds of the Dixie Mafia had best be extremely nervous.

Joe R. Lansdale’s popular Texan crime-fighting duo is immortalized in this hard-nosed collection of short stories and tall tales. Additionally, you’ll find one brand-new Hap and Leonard adventure and an original introduction by New York Times bestselling author Michael Koryta (So Cold the River).

Praise for Hap and Leonard

“Seven laid-back adventures, one of them brand new, for “freelance troubleshooter” and good old boy Hap Collins and his gay black Republican partner Leonard Pine. . . . No one currently working the field demonstrates more convincingly and joyously the deep affinity between pulp fiction and the American tall tale.”
—Kirkus

[STAR] “Last seen in the novel Honky Tonk Samurai, Lansdale’s incomparable East Texas crime fighting duo show their chops in this remarkable story collection. Hap Collins, a straight, white liberal, and Leonard Pine, a black, gay conservative, have long challenged genre conventions, and the friendship and camaraderie between these two hard cases as they suit up against injustice and hypocrisy is at the heart of these seven tales. In the novella “Hyenas,” the boys help save a client’s impressionable younger brother from the clutches of a group of psychotic robbers. “Dead Aim” finds the pair taking on the Dixie Mafia after a seemingly straightforward cheating spouse case gets a tad more complicated. “Not Our Kind” is set against the backdrop of the late 1960s, when a teenage Hap first befriends Leonard and faces the racism and intolerance of his peers up close. Readers can also look forward to the debut of the TV show Hap and Leonard on the Sundance Channel in March.
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An essential Hap and Leonard addition”
—The Novel Pursuit

“. . . it’s great to have all of these wonderful stories together in one nifty volume”
—Horror Drive-In

“It has all the hard to find short stories featuring Hap & Leonard, the most enjoyable mismatched pair of private eyes since Spenser and Hawk.”—Son of Spade

“This collection is crime/pulp fiction at its best and most captivating.”
—Risingshadow

“short, concentrated bursts of everything that makes the series so good.”
—October Country

“If you find yourself on the wrong side of Hap and Leonard, be cautious, because they are quicker than a rattlesnake, and their bite is just as bad. If you find yourself an innocent bystander looking for a great book to read, you’ve come to the right place.”
—Killer Nashville

“If you are a fan of the genre and looking for a new character to get into, Hap and Leonard won’t steer you wrong.”
—LitReactor

“For those new to either Lansdale or the series, this latest collection is an excellent introduction to the kind of trouble these two often find themselves in; all the while exchanging some of the funniest, lovingly antagonistic, and memorial dialogue of any crime series.”
—Bookgasm

“If you haven’t read any of the dozen or so Hap and Leonard novels, start here.”
—Lone Star Literary

“As Mr. Lansdale might say, ‘This was more fun than rolling down a hill with a bunch of armadillos.’”
—Horror Novel Reviews

About Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is the internationally-bestselling author of over forty novels, including twelve books featuring the popular Hap and Leonard. Many of his cult classics have been adapted for television and film, most famously Bubba Ho-Tep, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. Lansdale has written numerous screenplays and teleplays, including for the iconic Batman the Animated Series. He has won an Edgar Award for The Bottoms, ten Stoker Awards, and has been designated a World Horror Grandmaster.

Lansdale, like many of his characters, lives in East Texas.

Praise for Joe R. Lansdale

“A folklorist’s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur’s sense of pace.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Lansdale is a storyteller in the Texas tradition of outrageousness…but amped up to about 100,000 watts.”
—Houston Chronicle

“Lansdale’s been hailed, at varying points in his career, as the new Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner-gone-madder, and the last surviving splatterpunk…sanctified in the blood of the walking Western dead and righteously readable.”
—Austin Chronicle

“Like gold standard writers Elmore Leonard and the late Donald Westlake, Joe R. Lansdale is one of the more versatile writers in America.”
—Los Angeles Times

“…laugh-out-loud funny, acquainted with the night, and often acutely profound.”
—Dallas News

“Definitely not for the fainthearted or the easily offended.”
—Bookgasm

“The characters are so ridiculously realistic and the plots so simple that you can’t help but wonder why something so uncomplicated can be so fantastic. That is the magic of Lansdale.”
—Horror Bound

“…since I’m not mincing words, let me say that Mr. Lansdale doesn’t mince them either. That trip from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ (with some interesting stops along the way) is filled with well-wrought characters, black humor, knife-sharp dialogue, and enough violence to make even the most jaded Quentin Tarantino aficionado sit up and smile.”
—Washington Times

“Joe R. Lansdale’s writing swaggers back and forth through a variety of genres, format, and media, blending elements and tones in unconventional ways, but never losing sight of the importance of story and character. His characters feel authentic, his environments are believable, and his plots are gripping. He’s a great storyteller in the most classic American tradition; one gets the sense that if mankind never got around to technology, Lansdale would be roaming the country, regaling campfire crowds…the one thing he cannot write, will not write, is bullshit.”
—The Kind of Face You Hate

Praise for Cold In July

“This book is a rare treat for fans of crime and noir fiction with a dark side and is a testament to just how good of a writer Lansdale is.”
—Examiner

“…impressive Realism-meets-Road House-circa ’89 fight-scenes, tailings, and gunfights…. You’re sure to finish this book fast, but you’re also sure to think on it slowly.”
—Lit Reactor

“One of the benefits of Cold in July being made into an independent movie (adapted by screenwriter/actor Nick Damici and directed by Jim Mickle) is this new, movie tie-in edition from Tachyon, Joe R. Landsdale’s publisher….a finely told crime story.”
—Bookgasm

“…a crime fiction classic.”
—The Novel Pursuit

“It’s a major novel, full of darkness, humor, passion, and truth.”
-Lewis Shiner, author of Glimpses and Mozart in Mirroshades (with Bruce Sterling)

“I can’t think of a more remarkable suspense novel in the last few years. Cold in July has it all….”
-Ed Gorman, author of The Poker Club

“Cold in July is more than a novel of detection; it is an odyssey into the dark recesses of the human psyche….”
-Loren D. Estleman, author of Burning Midnight

“…told by a master writer…a great novel.”
—Murder by the Book

“Lansdale has a dark sense of humor and a brilliant ability to translate physical tension onto the page. In this novel, originally published in 1989 (and a film by the time you read this), he blends crime, southern gothic, and his own brand of East Texas noir. Don’t miss it.”
—Bookshelf Bombshells

“A character-driven thriller with more twists than an off-the-map dirt road, awards-quality performances from the three leads, a rare sensitivity to the after-effects of horror and a sure directorial hand. “
—Empire

“…this is crime fiction/pulp fiction at its best. It is dark, it is dangerous, it is wickedly humorous….”
—Looking for a Good Book

“[R]ead the book as soon as you can get your hands on a copy.”
—Everything Noir

An Appreciation of Joe R. Lansdale by Michael Koryta
Hyenas
Veil’s Visit
Death by Chili
Dead Aim
The Boy Who Became Invisible (story)
Not Our Kind (original story)
Bent Twig
Joe R. Lansdale Interviews Hap Collins and Leonard Pine
The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap and Leonard